HISTORY
Miss Behave was a P-47D Razorback flown by Lt. Robert Bosworth of the 82nd FS, 78th FG outta Duxford, Cambridgeshire.

The 78th FG started out as the 78th Pursuit Group and was activated on February 9, 1942 at Baer Field, Indiana. In May of 1942, it was redesignated the 78th FG and moved to Hamilton Field, California. In Feburary 1942, the unit and most of the pilots along with their P-38's were transfered to the 12th Fighter group and supported the efforts of Operation Torch. The 78th FG was one of the first units to use the P-38 Lightning. The unit was later assigned to the 8th AAF and shipped off to Europe in November of 1942.

The 78th FG started out in Goxhill, Lincolnshire from December 1942 until it was moved to Duxford in April of 1943 where it remained until the end of the war. The unit flew with many variants of the P-47 until it transitioned to P-51 Mustangs in late 1944. The group remaind in England until October of 1945 when all personnel where shipped home.

The 78th FG flew it's first mission on April 13th, 1943 and ended with it's last mission on April 25th 1945 flying some 450 missions.

CONSTRUCTION
This kit was built box stock, with the exception of the Aeromaster decals. This is my second attempt at Hasegawa's P-47 line, the first one being the Bubble Top version. As with the bubble top version, this kit posed no major problems in construction, other than the normal lower wing to fuselage fit that others have experienced with this kit. A little patience and time takes care of that join just fine. As with most my other kits, the only place I used filler was for all the seams, like on the fuselage join lines.

COCKPIT
The cockpit was left alone and paint my own mix to simulate bronze green. My typical wash of india ink, followed by dry brushings of a lightened bronze green and silver were applied to the interior. I placed drops of future into each canopy dial to try and simulate the glass.

PAINT / DECALS
The plane was painted with Model Master Enamels, RAF Dark Green over RAF Sky Type S. I used rolled up blue-tac to make the soft edged demarcation line. The Red on the rudder was sprayed prior to the white, then the white was misted over the red to produce a pink color. Black and White period photos show a slightly darker color where the white crossed the red.

Once everything had thoroughly dried, I applied a gloss coat of Future in preperation for decaling. Decaling the checker cowl proved to be quite a task. I have sprayed checkers on the flat surfaces of tails and stabs, but not of a changing cowl. After 4 botched decaling attempts on the cowl, I was given an old article from Fine Scale Modeler where the guy did it all by measuring and an ink pen. I stopped shy of the ink pen and masked it off with Tamiya Tape. After all the decals were applied, I sealed the decals with another coat of future. After the future setup, I applied a burnt umber oil wash to the plane. This airplane showed that it wasn't overly to dirty, other than prop wash and mud splashed up on the undersides, so I got out my Model Master Sand and muddied the bottom surfaces up.

WRAP UP
I added hypodermic gun barrels to the wing, instead of the kits provided plastic ones. I applied a heavily thin coat of Model Master Italian Sand to the underside to make it look muddy like the original did the photos.